Space Week 2009 at the Franklin Institute Oct 3 – 8

[ October 3, 2009 to October 8, 2009. ] According to the title of the Franklin Institute’s press release, Space and Robots will collide during World Space Week 2009.

Fortunately, space is fairly big, so I’m sure there is room for both space AND robots in…well…space. The event starts Oct. 3 with a robotics competition and ends on the 8th with a special edition [...]

The Nikola Tesla Energy Independence celebrations THIS WEEKEND

Whoa, how did I miss this.
Today marks the 153 birthday of everyone’s favorite real-life mad — meant with all due respect — genius Nikola Tesla. The Nikola Tesla Inventor’s Club is hosting a three-day celebration of the man, his work, and its modern relevance.
Here’s the schedule ripped straight from their site:
Nikola Tesla
Energy Independence [...]

Science Saturday at the Fairmount Water Works

[ July 11, 2009; 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm. July 25, 2009; 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm. ] It is easy to forget that, under all the concrete and asphalt, that Philly is a essentially a river town, built at the confluence of two great rivers. And even though many of our creeks were long-since diverted to sewers or buried to become future rowhome-sinkers, there is much natural beauty to be seen and [...]

Avery Brooks and Samuel Delany at the Franklin Institute 7/31 7PM

[ July 31, 2009; 7:00 pm; ] I’ll admit that every post here is meant to stoke your inner nerd. This, however, registers a Nerd Alert factor of at least 7.5.

Star Trek’s Avery Brooks and woefully under appreciated science fiction author Samuel Delany team up to talk about race, science and, of course, Star Trek.

An Evening with Star Trek’s Avery Brooks [...]

Atlas Obscura tour coming to Philly?

The Atlas Obscura has become the web’s preeminent site for touring the weird collections of the world. Recently, they’ve announced that they’ll be offering city tours at locations around the world…starting in Philly.
Beginning this summer, the Atlas Obscura will be offering day and weekend tours of the world’s most wondrous, curious, and esoteric cities. [...]

Make Botanical Sunprints this First Friday at the Chemical Heritage Foundation (6/5 5-8PM)

[ June 5, 2009; 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm. 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm. ] OK, this looks like fun…the Chemical Heritage Foundation takes part in Old City’s First Friday celebration and always seems to have the most interesting — and most family-friendly — activities to go with it. Last month it was crotcheting, I believe. This time it is making prints using photographic paper. I picked some up at [...]

The Unknown Skeleton at Science on Tap! (National Mechanics, 6/8, 6 PM)

Sticky bits, bones, rotting flesh, mummified tissues – the stuff of forensic anthropology dinner conversation at this month’s Science on Tap.
This month’s guest is the Penn Museum‘s Janet Monge (who, if you’ll recall was recently at Penn’s Science Cafe). Dr. Monge is co-curator of Surviving: The Body of Evidence, which was recently hosted at the [...]